China, infuriated over the US -Taiwan weapons cooperation, war exercises

Beijing: The United States should not play with fire by supplying weapon systems worth $2.2 billion to Taiwan. But China, upset that neither the United States nor Taiwan is paying any heed to the threat, conducted war exercises close to the Taiwanese border. The Chinese defence ministry announced the exercises.

Chinese destroyers and fighter jets participated in these recently concluded exercises. This was the brief information given by the Chinese defence department. The Chinese defence ministry claimed that this was a part of their annual exercises. But the international analysts are claiming that China made this announcement against the background of increasing tension with the United States and US-Taiwan weapons cooperation.

Since the last few days, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen is on a visit to the Caribbean countries. Before embarking on this tour, President Tsai had landed in New York. Lashing out at this visit, China demanded her immediate expulsion from the United States. At the same time, claiming that Taiwan is an integral part of China, objected to the political and military cooperation between the United States and Taiwan.

China had demanded to scrap the agreement made by the United States with Taiwan for the supply of tanks and missiles worth $2.22 billion. China also threatened to impose sanctions against the United States, if its demand was not met. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that the decision of the United States to play with fire, by developing relations with Taiwan would spell trouble for the United States.

But Taiwanese President Tsai dismissed the Chinese threat, saying that Taiwan will not bow to this Chinese pressure. At the same time, the Taiwanese President thanked the United States for the political and military cooperation extended. President Tsai met with senior US leaders during the visit. After that, President Tsai proceeded on her visit to the Caribbean countries. China, infuriated by this seems to have issued a warning conducting war exercises close to the Taiwanese border.